should acquire the strength which such a ripe training produces, that he should know how to do little matters for himself, without growing accustomed to be dependent on others; that he should not at too early an age learn the external insignia of his rank, which might render him lax in his duties, or imbue him with a vanity which would have eventually to be checked by moral principles; and if, lastly, that mode of education is the best in early years which is nearest to the natural one, I believe that the one applied to the crown prince will not be considered absurd. The only punishment inflicted on him was that he had no breakfast, or was left by himself in a room if he was naughty. As regards the alleged forgery of the document to prove the receipt of the 60,000 dollars from the king, I declare most sacredly that I intended no fraud in drawing it up, and was not guilty of forgery; that, before his Majesty signed the document, I wrote the whole account in his presence, and that I expressly asked the king for 50,000 dollars for Count Brandt and for myself, and his Majesty granted them; and that I could not notice at this time, nor when he signed the document, the slightest disinclination on the part of the king to our receiving such a sum. With the same certainty I can declare that everything which this memoir contains relating to the motives and inducements of my actions, and the occurrences in which I took part, has been most conscientiously recorded by me, as well as my memory enabled me to recall it. This was not the place to speak about morality, hence I shall not be suspected of having wished to bring forward anything in my excuse in this respect. _Postscript._ Perhaps it will not be superfluous to add an accurate and definite explanation of my sentiments with regard to the Russian alliance. I was ever of opinion that the king ought to maintain it, and although I was not at first so convinced as I afterwards was of the advantage of the Holstein negociation, still my advice was not to listen to any other propositions in this matter, and to carefully avoid arousing any suspicion of the sort at the Russian court. The insinuations and opinions of others, especially of Count Rantzau, produced but slight impression on me, and much less did I follow them. They were to the effect that we ought not to trust solely to the Russian court, but draw nearer to others, especially the Swedish. I never noticed any inclination of the sort in Lieutenant-General von Gähler. Since Easter of last year I have never spoken on the subject with any one but the minister of foreign affairs. As regards the Swedish alliance, I believed that it was advantageous, if the king only took that part which the treaty with Russia obliged him to do, but not seek any other influence, especially the influence of money.